These are the best games of 2018

These are the best games of 2018, the gaming industry is both thriving and undergoing massive changes. AAA developers are struggling to balance soaring budgets, indie developers are fighting to get noticed in a neverending sea of shovelware, and the biggest games in the world just keep on getting bigger — at the expense of every other game. Fortunately, the industry has a new savior (loot boxes), but unfortunately, also a new devil (loot boxes). In all this upheaval, sometimes really cool projects get cancelled.

These are the best games of 2018

But at the same time, this is now a mature art form with veteran teams and auteur talent. When everything comes together and fires on all cylinders, we can get games that push boundaries, defy expectations, and even save dying franchises from themselves. Even with the increasing number of titles to play, these are the ones that rise to the surface, that you to fit into your schedule no matter what, even if you have to forego some others. From classics given new life to labors of love, here are all the best games of 2018.

1/ God Of War Is To This Generation What God Of War Was To The Last Generation

In 2005, the original God of War was a revelation. Technically, it didn’t really do anything radically new; it just wove together a bunch of pre-existing ideas into a package that was so vital, fresh, and epic that it felt like it came out of nowhere. It was the absolute pinnacle of the action genre at the time. In a way, it was a marker for the very state of video games in the mid-2000s.

Fast forward 13 years, and everything old is new again. The new God of War – called God of War, not to be confused with the old God of War called God of War – has pulled off the same trick as its predecessor. In an era with superlative production values, more adult themes, and moral complexity, God of War has combined all of these elements and lifted them to new heights. And it hasn’t forgotten that it’s an action game, either: like the first game, it has weaved together everything that the action genre has learned of the last decade into a single near-perfect adventure. It is, once again, a marker for the very state of the art form.

2/ Shadow Of The Colossus Towers Over The Landscape

We know what you’re thinking: wasn’t there already a legendary PlayStation-exclusive game from 2005 that has been resurrected with the exact same title in 2018 on this list? Answer: yes. Also answer: this one deserves to be here, too.

These are the best games of 2018

The original Shadow of the Colossus challenged everything the industry thought it knew about games. Enemies and combat encounters? Outside of the titular colossi, there were none. Dialogue? None of that here, at least not in a language anyone on this planet understands. Constant stimulation? Prepare for quiet, relaxing exploration instead. Despite, or maybe because of, bucking all these trends, Shadow remains a beloved landmark in the medium’s history and still graces Best Game lists around the world.

So when Sony announced that they weren’t just remastering, but remaking the classic game, expectations, and doubts, were sky-high. Could lightning possibly strike twice? Could a new, modern design ever match the brilliance of its predecessor? Answer: still yes. Critics found that the new game preserved everything that made the original a classic, and modernized everything that needed modernizing, all wrapped in the bleeding edge of current graphics. This is a must-play for old fans or for newcomers discovering it for the first time.

3/ Monster Hunter: World Expanded On An Already-Great Series

Tired of reading about PlayStation games from 2005? Okay, let’s talk about one from 2004! The original Monster Hunter was a sort of Pokemon for adults, in which players must track down large, powerful creatures and capture them. Fantastic as both an RPG and an action experience, the game spawned an entire series. But for whatever reason, that series was always an underground phenomenon here in the West.

For their 2018 release, Capcom stumbled onto an idea that they thought might interest more Western gamers: taking the series open-world. Perhaps referring to the new design, or perhaps referring to the new intended audience, the game was called Monster Hunter: World. According to the game’s designer, Ryozo Tsujimoto, the new direction was made for creative and not commercial reasons. Maybe because of that, World went on to be a smash hit commercially, quickly becoming the fastest-selling Capcom game of all time.

And why shouldn’t it? The game took everything that made the Monster Hunter series great, updated it with top-notch visuals, and then spread it all out over a massive playspace with hundreds of hours of content. Sometimes, everything just goes right on a game.